Category: ecology
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A Maxent Script Tool for ArcGIS
As part of my PhD research at the University of Arizona where I study biogeography, biodiversity and macroecology, I have been part of a group looking at large-scale biodiversity questions for New World plants. In this role, I have been responsible for generating many species distribution models using Stephen Phillip’s Maxent software (and R with the Dismo…
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Les Miserables Look Down, Look Down the PhD Version
In the opening scene of the new Les Miserables movie, Jean Valjean (played by Hugh Jackman) is one of many shackled prisoners trying pulling a large ship into a dry dock during rough seas. The work song, “Look down, look down” is quite dramatic and the whole scene is cinematically spectacular and a powerful opening…
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Creating a Video of Vegetative Cover Sampling
As part of my graduate obligations for a course in methods of measuring and monitoring plant populations, I had to do some type of course project. Though our instructor offered several options of varying difficulty, it was clear that he really wanted someone to attempt to produce a video outlining how to do a method.…
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Desert Tortoise Training
From this post title, it might appear that I took part in training desert tortoises. In reality I participated in a workshop to learn how to survey, monitor and handle desert tortoises. The 2-day workshop is conducted annually in Ridgecrest, CA by the Desert Tortoise Council and covers a tremendous amount of material including: an…
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A Species Diversity Map for 88,000 New World Species
This is a small sample of a species diversity map that’s an end product of our models. This was created by overlaying 88,000+ shapefiles and represents the number of species potentially present in each cell. Red is low, dark blue and purple are high (over 8,000 species per cell).
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Revisiting the North Etiwanda Preserve
When I studied population biology in junior college we conducted our field work in a large expanse of land along the alluvial fan that drained the San Gabriel Mountains to the Inland Empire valley below. Our specific field site was a 750+ acre area containing coastal sage scrub and coastal sage chaparral plant communities that…
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Night Blooming Cerus, Peniocereus greggii
The Night Blooming Cerus, or Queen of the Night, (Peniocereus greggii) is a Sonoran Desert cactus that most of the year would be virtually impossible to find. It’s main stem is a thin, dull-green to brown stalk that resembles the branch of shrubs like the palo verde, Ironwood, or creosote bushes that it normally grows…
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Mobile Apps for Naturalists
Since nearly everyone carries a smartphone these days, we can now carry a small library worth of field guides with us inside our phones so we never miss an opportunity to identify an interesting organism. With this in mind, here are a few mobile applications that are today’s field ecologist or naturalist should definitely consider having…